Image forming apparatus calculating power consumption amount

Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes a first power calculator for calculating a power consumption amount of a driving load unit and a post-processing device based on at least one of measured values of a voltage and a current, which are supplied to the driving load unit and the post-processing device; second and third power calculators for calculating power consumption amounts of a fixing heater driving unit and a controller based on an operating state and an operating time of the image forming apparatus; and a power summing-up unit for calculating a power consumption amount of the image forming apparatus by summing up the power consumption amount calculated by the first power calculator and the power consumption amount predicted by each of the second and third power calculators.

Description

[0001]This application is based on Japanese Patent Applications No. 2011-222404 and No. 2011-222536 filed with the Japan Patent Office on Oct. 7, 2011, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, more particularly to image forming apparatuses, such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine, and a printer.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]Examples of an electrophotographic image forming apparatus include an MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) having a scanner function, a facsimile function, a copying function, a function as a printer, a data communication function, and a server function, a facsimile machine, a copying machine, and the printer.[0006]A demand for reduction of power consumption amount of the image forming apparatus including the MFP is increasing with an increasing worldwide interest in an environment, an increasing en...

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Benefits of technology

[0035]An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus th

Problems solved by technology

However, there has not yet been a technology of accurately measuring or calculating the power consumption amount of the image forming apparatus.

Accordingly, a little value is placed on accuracy of the displayed power consumption amount, and there are few efforts for improving the accuracy of the power consumption amount.

Additionally, the further improvement is performed to the facility in which the target emission reduction amount is not achieved.

However, in the technologies disclosed in Document 1, unfortunately the power consumption amount obtained by the calculation has the low accuracy.

For example, during the copy, the power consumption depends heavily on a copy mode.

Accordingly, the number of parameters, such as the fixed values A, B, and C, which are necessary to calculate the power consumption amount, increase, and impractically a large amount of work and design man-hour are required to fix the many parameters in order to enhance the accuracy of the power consumption amount.

Additionally, the variation in power consumption associated with aging of the image forming apparatus is serious.

Accordingly, even if the printing is performed in the same operating mode, the current state of the load changes from the state of the load half a year ago or a year ago, and the power consumption also changes.

Therefore, the variation in power consumption associated with the aging of the image forming apparatus cannot be evaluated, even if the fixed value is set according to the usage method (the printing setting) of the image forming apparatus like Document 1.

Sometimes launching of the image forming apparatus is delayed as it takes to much time for the correction work.

In the technology disclosed in Document 2, when the power consumption of each load of the image forming apparatus is measured, it is necessary to provide the watt-hour meter in each load according to magnitude of the power consumption of each load, which results in a problem in that complication of the apparatus is caused.

In the case that the operating state of the image forming apparatus is standby, the image forming a

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